The Veritas Real Estate Group, Inc.

Do not let the lack of funds keep you from hiring an attorney to help you fight a pending foreclosure. Here in Broward County, Florida the county has a hot line for families and individuals needing assistance in health and human services. Dial 211 and you will enter the gateway where you can request to speak to an attorney about your housing problems. The attorneys work pro bono, meaning there is no charge to the homeowner.

One of the reasons you want to make sure that you have an attorney working with you is that they know what papers to file to either delay the process (foreclosures can take over two years here in Broward) or to prevent the foreclosure from ever happening.

Earlier this year the Florida Supreme Court ruled that a lender could not go to court to file  a petition to foreclose unless they could provide evidence of the original note, which is the borrower's IOU. The note is not recorded in public records the way it is for the mortgage document.

If a consumer walks into XYZ lender and they fund the loan, chances are very high that the lender sells that mortgage and note to an investor. This is called an assignment and the assignment documents should be recorded. If the note was sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac chances are good that the documents were recorded. However, many of these documents were sold to other types of investors and the original note may not be retrievable and the various assignments may never have been recorded.

You can go to fanniemae.com and freddiemac.com and enter your property address and the site will tell you whether or not they own the mortgage and note. If they don't it is very possible original documents are lost. And for all I know, they may be lost even if those two giants now own the mortgage.

Now I am not an attorney but the recent Florida Supreme Court ruling leads me to believe that you may be able to live in your home without paying for your loan. You will need to pay property tax, association fees and you probably want to keep your hazard insurance, but if these companies have not done their due deligence and crossed their t's and dotted their i's you might be off the hook.

Talk to an attorney who specializes in foreclosure defense.